Phenom II coolers

D

DigitalSoul

Regular
Phenom II heatsinks

I'll be getting a Phenom II X3 720+ GA-MA790XT-UD4P and I've looking into some aftermarket HSF to cool it and so far this Zalman is what I have my eye on

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118004

Its under $60(let alone $50) and free shipping. So is it a good purchase? What else can yo guys recommended that isn't too expensive(or too big)?

Also that HSF has a 3pin connector, I'm not sure if thats going to be a problem or not. The motherboard compatibility list on Zalmans is from 3 years ago, but socket AM3 isn't much different from AM2 right? My first time building a AMD system.

Thanks in advance.
 
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Mounting bracket didn't change between AM2/3 AFAIK.

That said, not a huge fan of Zalman heatsink shape, the narrow spaces between the fins towards the middle soak up dust. I prefer the tower coolers.

This one for instance : http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835207004

3 pin is not a problem, it's just not a PWM fan (which sometimes means you can't control the speed with the motherboard ... although some motherboards have some controls for 3 pin fans as well). You will probably want some fan speed control for the Sunbeam cooler, 2000 RPM is noisy (for me). Zalman's generally come with a fan speed controller.
 
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I'm sure you can do a lot better than a Zalman 9500 on a modern AMD platform by now. I used to run the same cooler on an Opteron 175 almost 4 years ago.

Check out a Xigmatek HDT cooler for something inexpensive and high performance.
 
Uhm, I'm running this ArcticCool on my 955 @ like 3.7Ghz.

$30 and free shipping.

I've been thinking of picking up this XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 for a while now. It's got fantastic reviews, but I'm not quite positive if it'd fit in my case or not. (No biggy, I do still have tinsnips. ;) )

But it's only $41 shipped, and it has a good 120mm fan.

Now on my wife's 940 I got this ThermalTake which is nice, but it's a pain-in-the-arse to clean and it just seems like a dust magnet at times. Everytime I clean it I have to tinker with the fan in the middle to make it not tick. :???:

My son is rocking a PII X3 with a stock AMD64 heatsink with a bit of a nicer blower on it, the stock 64 heatsinks actually work really well with the Phenoms although I do recommend you put a real fan on it.

I'd go with simplicity. That ArcticCooling heatsink I linked to first is a real bargain and a great performer.
 
Running the 1283 model Xigmatek on my E8400 @ 4GHz with a second 120mm fan in push/pull config. Very nice, especially for the price.
 
How big is it? Is it like BARELY fitting in your case or do you have a bit of room?

Does it include mounting hardware for the second fan, and which did you get?

(I've REALLY been thinking about getting that cooler. :p )
 
I have a giant case (rebadged Lian Li Best Buy special) so my experience with the 1283's fitment won't help you much.

It does not include mounting hardware for a 2nd fan, I just used large zip ties top and bottom across the width of the cooler. Picked up a Scythe high-flow 120 for reverse-flow intake into the case and used the stock fan for exhaust into the case. Sort of an odd arrangement but it works well with the 3 120mm fans I added to the top of the case for exhaust.

All in all it's a great cooler, highly recommend it. Competes with the likes of the TRUE and is only ~ half the cost.
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys.
Space is something I keeping in mind when looking at these. I have a cool master centurion 5 mid tower case.

@digitalwanderer I've been looking at that Arctic Cool one, the price is certainly very attractive.

btw, how long does thermal compound last while in the tube/syringe? I have some AC MX-2 lying around that I got a year ago and I'm just wondering if it will be still good to use.
 
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The Arctic Cool is not only a bargain, it's a fantastic cooler. :)

I've been using the same tube of AS Ceramique for about 4-5 years now, so I figure your stuff should be good. So long as it's the right consistency and not dried out.
 
I've tried lots of different coolers, and the best ones have always been a big chunk of copper, preferably with a bigger fan that you can run at lower speed to make it quiet. All the fancy designs and trick fans have never really satisfied me either in noise or performance compared to the above. My main rig is running a Noctua NH-C12P and I'm really happy with it. It's very quiet and very effective. It's not cheap, but you get quality for your money.

It probably says something that the most popular performance air coolers are all big towers - a lump of copper, big heatpipes, big fans, lots of fins, as big as you can make it and still have it fit in the case.
 
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I've got the Noctua NH-C12P model, with socket 1366 mounting kit (which is just awesome great). The cooler is really well built, super quality worksmanship, and the mounting system is just fabulously easy to use. Only issue is you gotta remove the mobo from your case to put it on, if you're not building a system purely from scratch. Also, if you have an i7 system with memory sockets located really close to the CPU (like with the Asus Rampage II Gene) then you won't be able to fit expensive tall high-performance DIMMs. Other than that...nothing to fault, really.

Well, it's kinda expensive, so if you gotta complain about something, that would be it I guess lol. :D Still, you get what you pay for, like always. Temps may be a little higher than with a cross-flow tower cooler, but with this cooler you get air movement around your DC converters and chipset as well, which lead to overall cooler component temps I would think. :)
 
Grall said:
Only issue is you gotta remove the mobo from your case to put it on, if you're not building a system purely from scratch.
Click to expand...
If you aren't very dextrous putting in pushpins with towercoolers isn't exactly a walk in the park either while it's in the case ... it's hard to apply the pressure from weird angles all the while avoiding getting cut up by the fins.
 
MfA said:
If you aren't very dextrous putting in pushpins with towercoolers isn't exactly a walk in the park either while it's in the case ... it's hard to apply the pressure from weird angles all the while avoiding getting cut up by the fins.
Click to expand...

I have had the same problem, by the time I finished re-installing my Arctic Cooling Pro S775 version it would have been speedier to take the motherboard out and re-insert the HSF.

To Digi and BZB: I have had my Arctic Cooling Pro running for over 2 years now and it is still very quiet. All good so far.
 
Tahir2 - Nothing was wrong with my original fan, it ran well and quietly...I just wanted to put a horking 90cfm 120mm fan on instead.
 
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